Probably internationally acclaimed playwright Liza Birkenmeier, dubbed “the next big thing” by someone somewhere, who wrote national bestseller “Funny Women #136: Recommendation Letter” is also here to help you with your weekend plans.

It’s a popular yet strenuous question: What are you doing this weekend? For once I have an easy answer. As a Showalter superfan (of filmmaker Michael Showalter and leading feminist literary critic Elaine Showalter), I’ll be front row for Hello, My Name Is Doris when it opens in NYC and LA today.

Near the bottom of every Funny Women piece is the note, “Rumpus original art by Annie Daly.” We believe in combining hilarious content with a strong aesthetic while promoting artists with ovaries. For a year, Annie’s reliably created beautiful illustrations to make women’s writing and jokes prettier.

Mitt Romney ignited a feminist revolution during the 2012 presidential debates when he said, “I went to a number of women’s groups and said: ‘Can you help us find folks?’ And they brought us whole binders full of women.”

Throw VIDA’s pie charts highlighting “gender disparity in major literary publications and book reviews” into the mix, and you’ll grasp the necessity of Out of the Binders, a two-day solution/conference at NYU of workshops and panels “on/for/by women in the literary arts and film/TV” (which is probably you if you’re reading this post), aimed “to empower women and gender non-conforming writers with tools, connections, and strategies to advance their careers” (and enhance cup size).

In lieu of a “Funny Women” column today, please read all of Reductress, a new satirical women’s web magazine like The Onion that “tells the stories of real women, written by real women, for other real women who like to read about women.” At last, a news magazine that “that empower[s] women with feminine ideas, feminine emotions, and feminine products.”

Reductress “parodies woman-focused marketing and the consumer identity built around it, taking on the perk and patronizing tone that saturates online media today.

Kaylen Ralph and Joanna Demkiewicz, a.k.a. “The Rosies,” created The Riveter to celebrate “the diversity of the female experience by publishing original longform and narrative pieces by women.” As two female twentysomething journalism students, Kaylen and Joanna “needed to create a space where [they] could exist.” Preach.

There’s a new website for women writers. The PDXX Collective is a daily dosage of literary feminism, exploring how publishing more women writers can provide more social equality between the genders. Fuck yeah!

Mary Breaden began this online writers’ collective with the goal of making a weekly smashup of women writers.

As part of Lit Crawl NYC, BOMB Magazine presents: Poetry Smackdown this Saturday at 7pm at Dempsey’s Pub (61 2nd Avenue). Twelve poets will compete in a read-off to win the love of the audience and eternal glory. The first 50 people who attend will get a free chapbook of poetry by our contestants.

“We’re secretaries fully versed in Derrida, receptionists who have read Proust in French. This is a land of girls. There are always at least ten of ‘us’ for every one of ‘him.'” –Meghan Daum, “Publishing and Other Near-Death Experiences”

Author Sara Levine read a few chapters from her novel Treasure Island!!! (a Rumpus Book Club selection) at WORD bookstore in Brooklyn and said wonderfully interesting things during the Q & A with the audience:

Recently, I started taking improv classes at Upright Citizens Brigade Theater in New York (founded by the high priestess of funny, Amy Poehler). During each class exercise, I’d think, “This would help my writing.” I compiled a list of writing lessons I learned from Improv 101:

The AFI Directing Workshop for Women has been dedicated to developing the talent of the next generation of film and TV female directors since 1974. Amy French, one of last year’s eight AFI DWW fellows, generated some buzz with her feature from last year, El Súperstar, and continues to bring it with Hold for Laughs, premiering Thursday, June 16th (TONIGHT!) at 7pm at the AFI Mark Goodson Theater in L.A.

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Welcome to TheRumpus.net. We don’t say that lightly—we’re thrilled you’re here. At The Rumpus, we’ve got essays, reviews, interviews, music, film, short fiction, and poetry—along with some kick-ass comics. We know how easy it is to find pop culture on the Internet, so we’re here to give you something more challenging, to show you how beautiful things are when you step off the beaten path. The Rumpus is a place where people come to be themselves through their writing, to tell their stories or speak their minds in the most artful and authentic way they know how, and to invite each of you, as readers, commenters or future contributors, to do the same. What we have in common is a passion for fantastic writing that’s brave, passionate, and true (and sometimes very, very funny). (more)